We were very excited about visiting and vacationing on Anna Maria Island. Read all the posted reviews and thought Tickled Pink Cottage would be a relaxing setting to enjoy with our family. We have traveled all over the world and unfortunately we were disappointed. We wanted a nice vacation that was stress free and from the moment we arrived it built very quickly and was with us our entire stay. We admit we arrived 45 minutes early to a clean empty house and brought in our suitcases only to be confronted 15 minutes later by an angry owner’s husband who preceded to yell at us. After verbally chastising us we left only to be called immediately by the owner and told we needed to pay an additional $200 fee or forfeit our entire vacation. We paid the fee and returned at the proper time…not a minute early!! Okay, we made a mistake going into the house but the reaction by the owner was uncalled for…it could have been handled in a more civilized way on the owner’s part. So, not a good start….
Pros
Easily walk to the beach
AC worked great
Nice Pool when clean
Clean house, nice kitchen
Cons
So many rules – the refrigerator was covered with house rules, book with house rules, and Post-It notes throughout the house with more rules - even what brand of toilet paper and how to flush….
Dirty BBQ – notified owner – was told the previous tenant had no problem using it, but they never cleaned off the crusted on food and grease…we didn’t bother grilling like we had planned.
Noise – although numerous notices about noise ordinance violations and the threat of fines, the house is next to a busy street with considerable traffic noise even late into the evening. We believe the noise level was well above the maximum daytime limit of 65 decibels and nighttime noise limit of 50 decibels that was spelled out in the house rules. In those rules the owner noted a whisper is 30 decibels. Bring your sound meter to make sure you abide by the rules. We were afraid to even sit in the backyard at night!!
Pool – it very nice but the owner said it would be cleaned and that was never done throughout our stay (and we did notify the owner about the pool debris).
Ceiling fan in living room – could not turn down the speed from max and the after notifying the owner the response was they would not fix it because of our early arrival.
We made sure we followed all the rules and left the house per all the rules. We were "Tickled Pink" to finally go home!